


A Hairy Situation

by Kamui4Heroes



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gen, Post G:Z, Shenanigans, rip chrono getting teamed up on for his natural hair, scheming lil taiyou, team striders - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26471698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamui4Heroes/pseuds/Kamui4Heroes
Summary: "Wait, are you serious? That," Kazuma pointed a finger at the offending hair swirl at the center of Chrono's head, "Is natural?"---Kazuma realizes Chrono's hair is natural, Chrono faceplants a table, and Taiyou cooks up a scheme, now with art!
Relationships: Asukawa Taiyou & Shindou Chrono & Shouji Kazuma
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	A Hairy Situation

"Wait, are you serious? That," Kazuma pointed a finger at the offending hair swirl at the center of Chrono's head, "Is natural?" 

"For the last time, yes!" Chrono pushed away Kazuma's hand. "Did you really think I woke up every morning to curl my hair like this?" 

"I thought it was ridiculous, but yeah." 

Chrono sighed, "Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but it's completely natural. It's been like this since I was a kid." 

Kazuma ducked his head, shoulders faintly trembling. 

"Kazuma?" Chrono asked. 

Kazuma's hand felt flat on the table as pent-up laughter erupted, loud and clear and faintly husky. He doubled over the table, unable to control his laughter as Chrono sat opposite of him, progressively getting more irked. 

"Shindou, you-" Kazuma breathed in, "I can't believe it. That's hilarious." 

Chrono's brow twitched, "Well, what about you then?" He pointed at Kazuma's bangs where a single streak of white crossed over his right eye, "Is that dyed or natural?" 

"It's natural," Kazuma stopped laughing just enough to reply, "My brother can attest to that, but." Another fit of giggles rocked Kazuma's frame, "It's nowhere near as ridiculous as having a natural cinnamon-roll swirl in the dead center of your head." 

Chrono's face scrunched up into a frown. At sixteen years of age, he probably should have been more used to people pointing out the absurdity that was his natural hair, but really, he didn't think he had ever seen his teammate – his sarcastic, no-nonsense teammate – laugh nearly this much. 

And of course, because some force on Earth or Cray hated him, that was also the exact moment that Taiyou decided to walk into Card Capital 2. 

"Ah, Chrono-san! Kazuma-san! Good afternoon," Taiyou greeted. 

"Taiyou!" Kazuma called out through his laughing fit, "Did you know too?" 

Taiyou tilted his head in confusion, "Know what?" 

"That Shindou's hair swirl is natural." 

Taiyou looked over the Chrono with a pinched smile on his face, "Well, I, um." 

Chrono's eyes narrowed, "Don't tell me you thought I actually did my hair like this too." 

Taiyou pointedly looked away as he spoke, "I might've thought once that it was, um, a rather peculiar choice of hairstyle." 

At the sound of Taiyou's response, Chrono plunked his head, face-down, onto the fight table. Kazuma started laughing again at full force. 

"I'm sorry Chrono-san!" Taiyou blurted, "It's just. Your natural hair is very unique!" 

"Leave me alone," Chrono mumbled through the table. 

Taiyou carefully approached Chrono's prone form and gently patted him on the back, "I promise that at the very least I figured out that it was natural rather quickly." 

Chrono turned his head to the side so that a single green eye was focused on Taiyou's face, "When did you figure it out?" 

"A-ah, well," Taiyou scratched his cheek, "When was it now? I-I'm sure that it wasn't too long after I met you!" 

To no avail, Chrono resumed his table face-planting. 

Taiyou resorted to trying to change the subject, "Kazuma-san, what about your hair? A white streak is rather peculiar too, isn't it?" 

Kazuma stopped laughing just enough to reply, "Shindou already asked about it. It's natural, trust me, I have baby pictures and everything." 

"Yes, well," Taiyou wracked his brain, "Did you know that I had a white streak in my hair once too?" 

Kazuma's eyes widened slightly, "Oh? Did you now?" 

Taiyou's streak of white hair wasn't tied to the brightest of memories, but it was something to talk about, he supposed. 

"I did! It was right about here," Taiyou pinched the lock of hair that framed the right side of his face, "It wasn't white all the way to the root, but it nearly was." 

"Huh, you don't seem like the type that would dye your hair," Kazuma thought aloud, "Shame you didn't keep it, then we could've all been matching. Eh, Shindou?" 

"Leave me alone. I'm just going to keep my face like this so no one can talk about my hair again," Chrono mumbled against the table. 

"Matching..." Taiyou mused. 

An idea descended upon Taiyou's mind. The gears began to turn, faster than Chrono's luck-sacking triple crit. 

"Kazuma-san," Taiyou slammed both of his hands on the table, making Chrono jump. He couldn't keep the sheer excitement out of his voice as he blurted out, "Would you like to make a bet with me?" 

\--- 

"So I just have to move the bill without knocking over the coins and I can only use one finger. Is that it?" 

"Yes," Taiyou confirmed, "We only get one try each, though." 

On the table between them was a half-empty bottle of tea that Taiyou had just bought. The cap had been taken off and replaced with a single, crisp one-thousand yen bill that balanced over the lip. On top of the bill were three one-hundred yen coins stacked together over where the bill covered the top of the bottle.

"On top of moving the bill with one finger, you also can't move or touch the bottle or coins." 

Kazuma eyed the puzzle slowly from different angles. Without taking his eyes off of it he asked, "So what do I get if I win?" 

"I will volunteer to tutor Chrono-san for one week in your place. Oh! And you're welcome to keep the money as well if you'd like." 

"Guys, I am literally right here," Chrono piped. 

"And if you win?" Kazuma looked up at Taiyou. 

"I get to ask you for one favor of my choice." 

Kazuma's eyes narrowed, "Make it a week and a half, then." 

"Deal." 

Chrono sighed loudly and returned to planting his face into the table. So what if his teammates were jerks? They could hedge all the bets they wanted while Chrono practiced the art of merging into the table. He would show them, astrophysics be damned. 

Kazuma lined up to the bottle first. 

He was aware that the odds were stacked against his favor since the puzzle in question was one of Taiyou's choosing. However, after observing for a while, Kazuma was fairly sure that he had the solution. If the only thing he could touch was the bill, then the puzzle had to come down to the technique of pulling out the bill. It was like pulling a tablecloth out from a table loaded with fine china. 

Then, it was fortunate that Kazuma had a wicked wrist flick. 

He reached out then quickly flicked his wrist down so that his index finger hit the bill hard. 

The bill was pulled down so fast that the stacked coins trembled and teetered dangerously to one side. Then, right as the last centimeter of the bill slipped under them, they fell over at once and clattered noisily on the table. 

"Crap," Kazuma muttered. 

"Not bad, Kazuma-san," Taiyou feigned sympathy, "But, you knocked over the coins." 

"Well, let's see you do it then," Kazuma crossed his arms. 

"Of course," Taiyou smiled candidly. 

Kazuma had had the right idea. The puzzle did ultimately come down to technique, albeit one that Kazuma would have been hard-pressed to guess without any hints. Taiyou stuck out his tongue and licked a stripe down his index finger. 

Then, he raised his arm and delivered a quick chopping motion to the bill. 

Like magic, the bill stuck to Taiyou's finger and slid right out from underneath the coins without disturbing them or the bottle. 

Ordinarily, Taiyou wasn't one to gloat. However, the look of shock on Kazuma's face was so priceless that he decided to indulge in just a little bit of showboating. He held up the bill between two fingers and smiled, "It seems like it's the _middle schooler's_ win today, Kazuma-san." 

Kazuma sighed loudly, "Alright, alright, fine. What do you want?" 

Taiyou's smile deepened. 

His plan was in full swing. 

\--- 

The next day, Chrono found himself working at the store after school. 

While there were plenty of customers bustling about and having cardfights, he found it oddly quiet at the counter. On a normal day, Kazuma usually came with him to the store and stuck around the unless he had something else to do like visit his brother or get groceries for his mom. He even helped out occasionally if anyone needed to learn the ropes of Vanguard while Chrono was already occupied. 

Honestly, sometimes Chrono wondered if it would be worthwhile to raise the idea of having Kazuma actually work at the second store. There were some times during peak hours and tournaments where having another set of hands would help. 

Chrono filed the idea away at the sound of the familiar creak of the store door opening. 

"Welcome-" 

"Come on Kazuma-san!" 

"No no no no no, I am not going in there!" 

Taiyou backed into the store with both hands wrapped around what appeared to be Kazuma's wrist, tugging back with as much strength as he could muster. Kazuma's other hand was wrapped around the doorframe, clearly resisting Taiyou's pull. From where he stood at the counter, Chrono could only make out Kazuma's left leg. 

"Um," Chrono broke up their arguing, "You guys are blocking the door." 

"That's why-! Kazuma-san! Needs to come in!" Taiyou punctuated each word with another forceful tug. 

"No way! I'm going home!" Kazuma protested. 

Chrono sighed. For how much Kazuma teased Taiyou for being a child at heart, sometimes they were both just as bad. 

"Okay, okay, break it up-" 

Right as Chrono was about to lift the counter door to stop his teammates' rabble, Taiyou gave one strong tug that sent Kazuma flying into the store and right into Taiyou. The two crashed into each other and tumbled into a blur of school uniforms and limbs. 

"Are you alright?!" Chrono raced out of the counter and knelt down. 

"Kathuma-than you're heaby!" Taiyou complained through a mouthful of Kazuma's blazer. 

"Well we wouldn't be in this mess if you-" 

Taiyou reached out from under Kazuma blindly, until his palm made contact with the underside of Kazuma's jaw and pushed up, hard. 

"Hey! Stahp mobing I'm tryin' to help!" Kazuma gritted through the palm smooshing his cheek in. Kazuma maneuvered his arms until his hands made contact with the hard floor and push himself up, only to be jerked back by a tug on the front of his blazer. 

Somehow, in their struggling, one of Kazuma's buttons had gotten caught on a loose thread from Taiyou's gakuran. 

"What the?" They both exclaimed in unison. 

"Okay, stop!" Chrono clapped his hands. As amusing as it was to see his teammates struggle, they were also starting to be a major obstruction. Which, Chrono, as the dutiful employee he was (thank you, Shin-san, Misaki-san) was obligated to clear. 

He reached out between his teammates and deftly undid the thread. 

"Okay, Kazuma, you can get up now." 

"Finally," Kazuma pushed himself up and off of Taiyou. 

"Taiyou are you alright?" 

Taiyou pulled himself up to sitting and tugged the offending loose thread off of his clothes, "Yes, I'm fine, Chrono-san." 

"That's good," Chrono sighed, "How about you, Kazu-" 

Chrono froze. 

Kazuma looked away. 

"What is _that_?" 

Right in the top of Kazuma's head, where his naturally tousled bangs and white streak of hair normally were, was a startlingly familiar swirl of hair. 

It wasn't a perfect replica of Chrono's own hair since Kazuma's hair was much shorter, and since his white streak began on the left side of his head, the swirl spun in the opposite direction. But still, it was undeniably an attempt to emulate Chrono's natural hair. A damn good one, at that, too. 

Taiyou cleared his throat, "That, is the effort of one hour's worth of work and a whole tub of hair styling gel." 

Chrono snorted. 

Then he began to laugh like he never had before. He shook so hard that his torso spasmed as struggled to breathe in between peals of loud, rambunctious laughter. 

"Chrono! Give it a break!" Kazuma barked. His face was red all the way to the tips of his ears, hot with embarrassment. 

When Chrono realized that Kazuma's face was quickly becoming the cherry red color of Chrono's actual hair, he only started to laugh harder. In the background, Taiyou grinned, wholly satisfied with the outcome of his handiwork. 

It took nearly ten whole minutes for Chrono to calm down enough to speak again. 

"So, this is what you did with that bet from yesterday Taiyou?" 

Taiyou nodded, "It occurred to me while we were talking yesterday that Kazuma-san's white streak was rather, well, strategically placed for emulating your hair, Chrono-san." 

"You little," Chrono huffed, his shoulders still quaking with the threat of another outburst. "I can't believe you actually did this." 

"He made me sit for a whole damn hour while tearing my scalp out," Kazuma muttered. 

"It was for a good cause," Taiyou shrugged. Then, his eyes suddenly lit up in remembrance, "Oh! I forgot the best part." 

Taiyou turned to Chrono with an unhidden look of deviousness in his bright eyes, "You can ask him the question." 

It took a beat for Chrono to realize what Taiyou was implying, but when it clicked he picked up Taiyou's cunning smile. 

"Hey Kazuma." 

Kazuma frowned, wary of whatever his teammates had silently plotted, "… What?" 

"Did you style your hair like that, or is it actually natural?" 

Minutes later, Chrono and Taiyou found themselves running down the street from Card Captial 2, laughing maniacally as Kazuma raced after, hot on their heels. 

**Author's Note:**

> Someone take my keyboard and drawing tablet away from me, please and thank you. 
> 
> I wholly blame this chaosfic on a conversation I had with [manila_envelope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manila_envelope) (aka Sage) about some of the hairstyles of Vanguard characters and how Kazuma's lil white streak could become a Chrono swirl with some... heavy coercion. I have no further excuses.
> 
> If you have some time, I recommend swinging by [Eclarius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eclarius) and [manila_envelope's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manila_envelope) cfv discord server! They've graciously let me share it [here](https://discord.gg/fAjJXApWP4) so feel free to pop in and yell about cfv with us!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
